Swimmers
by pizzansushi
Summary: Nursing student Hinata is kicked out from home, due her father's disapproval of her major of study. Hinata joins the college swim team because she likes Naruto. Except Naruto likes Sakura. And Sakura wants Sasuke. And Sasuke wants Hinata. Hopefully, their academic and love lives work out, swimmingly.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 Surly Waters**

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Birds were chirping overhead. The early morning sun shone down. Hinata Hyuga bit into her vanilla bean scone and drank down her orange juice. Sweets made everything better. Even breakfast with Hiashi Hyuga, himself.

Hiashi patted Anko's belly and cooed. "Hey there Priscilla! You're going to beautiful like your mom one day!"

Hinata would have found the scene cute. But Anko was 25 years old and pregnant with a man more than twice her age. Anko was Hinata's stepmom. As if that was not horrifying enough, Hiashi was Hinata's father by blood.

"You know Hinata, Ino's dad said she just got accepted to Konoha University. She's going to study Business-Law. What do you plan to do, darling?" Anko asked with unsteady sophistication. The lady sported a pixie cut. Comely enough, she had blue hair and gray eyes.

"Yeah, I'm going to Konoha with Ino too. But I'm going into their Nursing program." Hinata said civilly. It's hard to be nice to someone who talks behind your back often.

"You're going into Nursing!? Why not pre-med or pre-law? Go into engineering for pete's sake!" Hiashi ranted. He threw up his arms.

"Nurses are people too stupid to go to med school." Hiashi went on.

 _Or too financially broke._ Hinata thought.

"Dad! Here's the plan. If I fail the first year of nursing, I can work as a nurse's aide. That's about $24,000 a year.

"If I pass two years of nursing, I can work as a registered nurse. That's about $40,000 a year.

"If I make it through four years of nursing, I get my bachelor's in nursing. I'll make about $54,000.

But that's all before I have to pay tax." Hinata explained. In case she fails, Hinata wanted to be able to support herself.

This whole situation was goddamn pathetic. Most parents have already found out what their kids wanted to study a year ago. Ino's parents had guided both Ino and Hinata through the college application process.

Hiashi was only getting the news now. It wasn't like he ever cared to begin with. The CEO in Hiashi just wanted another table topic to brag over. _But his daughter decided to be a nurse. A goddamn nurse. That was not something worth bragging about._

Hinata had spent her whole life between boarding school and summer camps. She didn't get to see her father often. That didn't bother her. What really bothered her was that she didn't get to see Hanabi that often. The sisters texted and videochatted daily. It was nice having someone to laugh and cry with.

Fortunately, Hanabi was not here right now. School ended later for Hanabi than Hinata. Hanabi was still in middle school. If Hanabi was here, the girl would have shoved Hiashi into the pool. No one messed with Hinata when Hanabi was around. That girl was fierce. Maybe a little too fierce, sometimes.

"So basically, you are playing it safe. You built an entire plan around the fact that you'll probably fail. Is that right?" Hiashi asked.

 _It's called a back-up plan._ Hinata argued—you know in her head. Hinata always had a back up plan. There was a paranoid sense of independence she lived by.

"Well, I got something to teach you. It's a competitive world out there. You have to change your major. Do engineering maybe. You always hang out with those science freaks. Maybe they'll let you cheat off their notes." Hiashi wondered.

"Yeah! That's it, Hinata. Change your major to pre-med or business. Nursing is skanky. It's a blue-collar job!" Anko chirped in.

"I am not going to change my major." Hinata said firmly.

Hiashi pushed himself up over the patio table. "You live under my roof. You follow my rules."

"Well, father, I'm going to excuse myself for a minute. I need to use the lady's room. Can we talk about this later?"

The breakfast bunch broke up. Hinata snuck some scones for the road.

o.o

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Everything Hinata needed was already in her two suitcases. This was how you live when you moved from home to boarding school to camp every three weeks. She had everything she needed. Her laptop, her papers, and her clothes.

She loaded the two suitcases into her car. Hinata thought she could hang out at Hiashi's house. She wanted to spend a bit of time with Hanabi before she leaves. So much for that idea.

Hinata was a dumb bluenette who should have seen the writing on the wall. In the past, Anko always drilled her. There was always something. Anko would always dig up _**something**_ about Hinata that Hiashi would not approve of. No. Hinata was sick of that game.

She drove herself to Tenten's condo.

Hinata did not need Hiashi anymore. Hinata had a full scholarship to Konoha University. Her tuition, room, and board would all be paid—all $45,000 per year of it. The only problem was that the scholarship doesn't kick in until six weeks from now. Hinata dialed Tenten on Bluetooth.

"Hey! Hinata, how you doing girl?"

"I'm fine, thanks. Listen, is it okay if stay at your place for while? I'll help out with the rent."

"Sure! When are you staying? Neiji's staying over this week."

Neiji was Hinata's cousin. He was also dating Tenten.

"Oh! Well can I stay over next week then?" Hinata asked. She would just stay at a motel for now.

"Yeah! Of course, honey!" Tenten said. "And congrats on that full ride. You're going to love Konoha University. It's so posh."

"Thanks Tenten, you're the greatest." As good a friend Tenten was, Hinata didn't want to ruin her time with Neiji.

Staying at a motel for a week would only hurt her bank a little...a lot. Seven days times $70. About $490 for just a one week stay. Damn California was expensive.

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Hinata studied at the Konoha University library during the day. Hinata could only keep her full ride if she kept a 3.5 GPA. Nursing, despite her father's assessment, was a hard major. She needed to study ahead if she wanted to keep her funding.

After studying for 3 hours, Hinata gathered her belongings into her backpack. What did she want for lunch? Ramen? Ramen was cheap.

Hinata head towards Ichiraku's Ramen Shop in the Konoha U Cafeteria. Close by was a stand with the banner. "Be a Konoha Katfish! Join the Swim Team!"

Hinata had blue hair and a slender build. She felt at home in the water. Hinata used to be in the high school swim team. She could swim 500 meters freestyle in around 5 minutes. With nursing school approaching, she wasn't sure she could juggle swimming in the mix.

"Hey! Are you a swimmer? You look like a swimmer to me." A blonde guy joked with her. He was handsome. Boys in high school were all cute and cuddly. But by the time they got to college, they were drop dead manly. Hinata was feeling the affect he had on her. He could ask her to do something very stupid—and Hinata probably would do it.

"Yeah! I used to swim a bit." Hinata said humbly. She took the brochure he held out to her. "So when does tryouts start?"

"It's going on all week. Today's the first day. I would tryout today, if I were you. It makes a good impression with the coaches, _ya know_? I'm already in the team, returning students tryout in the spring." He said.

Hinata read the brochure. Tryouts starts today. Swimmers that qualify could live in the dorms four weeks earlier than most freshmen. God was on her side!

She would stay at the motel for a week. Stay at Tenten's for a week. The rest would be covered. Hinata would make tryouts, she knew she would.

"Wish me luck!" Hinata whacked blondie on the arm with the brochure.

"Good luck!"

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 **AN: No drama like family drama to really stress you out. It's good to purge.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2) Rising Tide**

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People made Hinata nervous. Drama made Hinata nervous. But, swimming? Swimming never made her nervous. She loved the water. Clarity of the water became the clarity of her mind. When Hinata swam, her only thoughts were of swimming. She lived in that single moment.

She shook out her muscles. She pushed on her googles to test the suction for good luck.

Hinata wore a solid black one piece swimsuit. All her azure hair was tucked inside her orange cap. Her googles were large enough to enclose her wide eyes, but small enough to withstand the force of water and speed.

She mounted the starting board. She tucked in her chin. Gazing at the waters, Hinata positioned herself. Old coaches in high school stressed the importance of an exploding start. She wrapped her fingers and thumbs around the front of the board. Facing both feet forward, Hinata placed her right foot ahead of the left. Adjusting her feet, Hinata picked the perfect angle to enter the water at.

Ready and positioned, Hinata waited for the sound of the start horn over the speakers.

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAARE

She entered the water. Her arms launched behind her neck. The momentum propelled her into the dive. She took advantage of the dive to glide herself forward. Cold water hitting her face did not stun her. Every action came to her body by reflex. She dolphin kicked herself forward and upwards.

Hinata countered the depth of her dive with one strong stroke forward. She was in position.

Stroke. Stroke. Stroke. Breathe left. Stroke. Stroke. Stroke. Breathe right.

This was the 500 Free. Her favorite style. The length of the Konoha U pool was 50 meters, Olympic sized. She would have to pace herself for ten laps. Hinata let herself breathe often. She wasn't greedy.

She looked at the black line at the bottom of the pool to gauge her distance. When she met the horizontal bar at the bottom, she prepared for the flip turn. She did a somersault in the water. She pushed herself off the wall and turned back onto her belly. She reentered her stroke.

Hinata and three other girls had surpassed the six others by half a lap.

Finally, she finished ten laps. She hung onto the pool wall. When she looked to her left side, she saw a swimmer in a green cap. The bluenette doggy paddled towards the lane rope.

"Hi, I'm Hinata." Hinata said. She got 5:05.10, not bad!

"I'm Temari." The girl in the green swim cap reached out her arm. Hinata gave it a firm shake. The two swimmers lounged on her back and watched as the other swimmers finished.

Temari reached into the bin and grabbed two towels. Temari held one out to Hinata.

"Thank you. This is my first year. Are you a freshman?" Hinata asked. Of course Temari was a freshman, this was freshman tryouts. Hinata just wanted to break the ice.

"Yeah, it's my first year, too. I'm going here for nursing." Temari answered.

"Me too! I have clinicals in Venice." The bluenette bantered.

Temari swung an arm around Hinata. Temari said with a smile, "Well, now, I know who my carpool mate is."

Fast friends were not guaranteed to last. But for now, Hinata enjoyed the moment. She made the second fastest time. She made the swim team. And maybe, she made a friend.

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 _"Hi dad, it's Hinata. Look I'm sorry for the argument_

 _yesterday. I'm sorry for walking out like that. Anyways,_

 _I just wanted to tell you I made swim team. And I got a_

 _full ride for nursing, so I won't be changing my major._

 _I'm going to stay at college about four weeks before_

 _the other students. I'm safe. And just call me, okay?_

 _I love you guys."_

Hinata left the message on Hiashi's voicemail and text. Maybe she overreacted a little, Hinata thought to herself. Maybe her dad was just worried. Sometimes she was so sensitive. Even if she and her dad did not get along, Hinata wanted to make amends. She wanted to come over and visit once in a while. Maybe see Hanabi and Priscilla, once she's born.

The teen sat in her car with a sigh. The alignment of her car was off. She was going to drive to Inuzuka car shop to get it fixed.

Hinata bought her new grey Toyota Camry off of Anko. Her stepmother drove like a maniac. The wheels were out of alignment, because Anko liked to drive on sidewalks. Sidewalks! For pedestrians, not cars! The crazy woman had no consideration for anyone or anything on the road—not even herself.

As much as Hinata disliked Anko, she said prayers for that lady and her baby. Anko liked to worry about stupid things. Anko complained about Hinata making the family look poor. She questioned why Hinata still carried last season's MK purse. The woman was obsessed with eating good, dressing good, and being better than other people.

How are you better than others, when you're dead?

Hinata held her steering wheel slightly to the left. Left to its own devices, the Camry liked to drift to the right. Honestly, it wasn't a big deal if Hinata took only inside roads. But her clinical shifts were in Venice, California. It was dangerous to take the highway with her front end alignment off.

The grey Camry pulled up outside Inuzuka Auto Repair. They were the cheapest in town.

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"Hi!...Hi, Hinata. What do you need?" Kiba looked at her. He looked at her like he felt sorry for her. She wanted to go back into her car and take her business elsewhere. Except, she didn't have that kind of money.

The tall, brown haired male rubbed his hands into a rag. Black oil smeared the cloth.

"I need to get my wheels realigned."

"Sure. Give me your keys."

"Here." Hinata held out the keys out to him. She didn't want talk to him more than she needed to.

The Inuzuka's never cheated anybody, this was why she always went to their shop. Kiba had worked up the nerve to ask Hinata out last year. She liked him. He liked her too much. He spoiled her like a princess. Guilt struck Hinata. It was her fault. She ruined it.

Long story short, Kiba and Hinata decided to break up. Maybe take a break from each other a bit. Hinata needed to work herself out.

Hinata sat inside the lobby and waited for her car. Hinata read the rules to nursing clinicals. She highlighted and wrote notes in the corners. There were a lot of pitfalls at the hospital. If you weren't careful, the administration will never let you work at another hospital again.

"Hey, Hinata. You're alignment is done. You keep your car in pretty good shape, so you probably won't have any problems." Kiba said, he handed her back her keys.

Fixing alignment was about $60 here. If Hinata went to another car shop, they would make her pay $80 for alignment. On top of that they would draw up other nonexistent problems with her car. They would bash her for twice or three times as much money.

"How much do I owe you?" She asked.

He looked back into her lavender eyes. God, he missed her. "Don't worry about it."

Hinata grabbed his arm. She spoke softly, but firmly. "No. How much?"

"I said don't worry about." He pulled away from her.

"Well thanks, Kiba."

Hinata gathered her stuff and walked to the counter. "Hi, can I buy a service gift card for $80?"

Hinata paid and left. She was never going to use that card, he knew. Kiba shook his head. She was so stubborn.

o.o

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 **Four Weeks Before Fall Semester 2012**

The Konoha University dormitory was just like any other dormitory. In other words, her living quarters had issues. Hinata was used to living in school and camp lodging. This was no big deal. Besides, what did she expect when rent was free?

When Hinata turned on the water, black water poured out of the faucets. She let it run for a while and the water turned clear again. She could wash. But it still was not safe to drink. Outside her dorm there were construction workers digging up soil. It messed up the water pipes.

The dorm was steaming hot. It had no air conditioning. The furniture dated back to the 1950's if the markings were any indication. The smell of sweat evaporated from the carpets in the California heat.

Hinata had placed some yogurt in the public fridge in the lounge. Within an hour, someone had stolen her yogurt. That just about does it. Her dorm was a dump.

The slender teen collapsed on her mattress in the dorm. She had no roommate yet. All she had was a bare mattress, a bedframe, a table, a chair, and two suitcases. The mattress was probably dirty. She had no fitted sheets. Right now, she was too tired to care. Hinata doze off to sleep on the old black mattress.

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5 pm. She fell asleep for five hours. It has been two weeks, her dad never answered her message. Hanabi texted her.

Hanabi: _Congrats sis! You're a real independent woman now._ \^o^/ (Hooray emoji)

Hinata growled in exhaustion. She texted her sister. _Being independent sucks!_

The bluenette dragged herself up and dangled her feet off the bed. She was hungry, thirsty, and needed a shower. First up, that shower. Then, she go out and eat something. After that, she needed to buy some stuff for her room.

After washing and making herself presentable, Hinata drove out to a café. She bought herself a pesto chicken salad, orange juice, and a cinnamon bun. She got a scholarship. She made the swim team. If she does not treat herself well, who will?

Hinata headed out to the thrift shop. She bought herself a lamp and some dining ware. Nursing scrubs were $20 a piece. Patients would probably vomit on her clothes anyways. Hinata bought used scrubs for a tenth of their original price from the thrift shop. She was lucky. The bluenette beauty was tall, she had no problem finding scrubs that fitted her.

From the supermarket, Hinata bought bedsheets, a small fridge, and some food. She decided to pick up some cleaning supplies, a fan, and a water filter. She used up nearly $250. Hinata only had about $3,000 left in the bank. Oh well.

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Sasuke watched the bluenette in amusement. He offered to carry her refrigerator into her dorm. She refused. She hauled the box twice her size into the threshold. The blue-haired beauty was going to drag that thing in by herself—even if it could be the last thing she would ever do.

He intervened when she looked like she was going to hurt herself.

Hinata was her name. He remembered her from the freshman swim team tryouts. Her form was bad, but she somehow made the second fastest time. If she fine-tuned her form, she would be pretty excellent. Sasuke was the lifeguard watching over the pool during the tryouts.

Hinata was gorgeous…and sassy. Not obnoxiously sassy, but she had they kind of wit that made you cling onto her words. There were times when she was surprisingly kind. She worked part time at Ichiraku's Ramen Shop. It wasn't like Sasuke was…stalking her or anything. His best friend Naruto loved that ramen joint. Sasuke found he did not mind ramen as much these days.

Sasuke was in a predicament. He was so used to women throwing themselves at him. What do you say to get a girl to like you?

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 **Sorry, if slice of life is not your thing. My baby Hinata is getting a taste of adulthood. She has adult issues. Those suck.**

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End file.
